[Buddha-l] Memes amd me

[Joy Vriens]

>I suppose instinct is correct, although I don't know if there is a   
>technical difference amongst biologists. It is like, for example, a   
>young monkey learns to wash clams before eating them if she goes with   
>the adults to the seaside everyday, but a similar monkey, isolated   
>from the clan but with access to the same clams might eat clams   
>(instinct/genetic), but never think of washing them. 

If a meme is "a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one generation to another by nongenetic means", then a monkey isolated from a very young age from the clan would be totally meme-free. Would it have a culture? Whatever culture it would have, would have been the result of mimicking the nature surrounding it, so the "passing-on" would be without the will from the passer on to pass it on. The passing on would be basically the learning by the monkey. 

And if that monkey were isolated in a totally stimulation free environment (I am not suggesting to actually carry out this type of Dr Mengle experimentations), would it end up with any culture at all, however basic or minimal? 

Conditioned by mind-body split ideas, I find it difficult to warp my thoughts around the idea of genes already having some basic fundamental information. What makes it possible that memes can happen at all?     

Joy